News / Emily’s fundraising drive in aid of ‘amazing’ island accommodation unit in Aberdeen
A MOTHER of four from Lerwick is getting her hair chopped off as part of an effort to raise money for the islands accommodation unit next to Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.
Emily Smith, who runs the Fat Little Pony gift shop on the town’s Commercial Street, has already raised over £500. She said it was impossible to overstate how important the self-catering unit was for expectant mothers and their families.
Her youngest two children, Mark (3) and Finley (1), were respectively born 29 and 31 weeks into pregnancy – resulting in stays of more than a month on both occasions.
The accommodation unit, which reopened in 2010 following a refurbishment, relies entirely on donations, mostly from people in Shetland and Orkney.
The rooms are used by mothers, often joined by their partners and children, while preparing to give birth in Aberdeen.
Pregnant women are often sent to the mainland in the later stages of pregnancy for a variety of reasons, including if there is any concern about possible complications during labour.
Rooms are also taken up by parents with babies in the neonatal unit, and guests from Shetland and Orkney are able to stay free of charge.
Emily told Shetland News: “They helped us when we really, really needed help. It’s purely funded by the generosity of people from the islands.”
She said the fundraiser was a way of “giving thanks back” for the care they had received.
“Mark decided it would be a funny idea to come at 29 weeks and Finley decided he was finished cooking at 31 weeks,” Emily said.
“I don’t know if I have enough words [to describe the accommodation unit] – it is just amazing. Going through the horrors of your baby coming early, you’re not thinking about where you’re going to stay – you’re hoping and praying that the baby’s gonna be okay.”
Rooms are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and she and her husband Brian were lucky that “both times we had friends that were having to stay too, and ones from Orkney we wound up being friends with, and are still in touch with today”.
Emily described having other guests in a similar predicament to talk to was a bit like “giving you a second family to help and support you when you don’t have your family there”.
She will be getting her hair cut off at Envy Hair Studio in Lerwick at 12.30 on Friday 25 November and plans, at a later date, to organise a Sunday teas to help raise more money.
Emily hopes the unit will use the money for “whatever is needing replaced or renewed or updated”, and she plans to alternate between raising money for the accommodation unit and the neonatal unit.
- You can donate online via Emily’s JustGiving page, or in person at the Fat Little Pony shop on Commercial Street.
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